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Benay Hicks
Jan 19

A DREAMY day in Durham

Our 13th annual Dream Big Book Drive and Community Celebration took place on Monday (MLK Day) January 15, and we are still floating on clouds over at Book Harvest. Seeing our community come together filled our cups to the brim! They're overflowing with gratitude and joy.


Even though temperatures remained on the chilly side and the sun rarely made an appearance, over 2,000 people attended and celebrated the dream of MLK Jr., literacy, and the power of community.


Car after car drove through and unloaded children's books to donate: over 20,000 books were collected in just three hours! Our Dream Big Book Drive, which runs from December 1 through January 31 and includes the celebration on Monday, has already brought in over 40,000 books (and counting!).


Children and families also harvested 1,995 books that day -- some kids not even waiting to get home to start reading them. We saw many children and families reading books during the event!


We were thrilled to host so many wonderful partners, including Wool E. Bull, Mad Popper, the Bouncing Bulldogs, Paperhand Puppet Intervention, Poetry Fox, Total Koality, Bull City Woodshop, Museum of Life and Science, Gift of Knowledge Academy, Mr. A's Beignets, Weaver Street Market, Empowered Parents in Community (EPiC), Child Care Referral Central, Communities in Schools, Kathi's Klowns, More To Learn Tutoring, B3 Hot Chocolate Bar, City of Durham Parks and Recreation, Durham’s Partnership for Children, youcanvote.org, Wonder Lab, Writefully HONEST, GoDurham, HBCU Healthy Equity Project, Durham Global Alliance, and Neighborhood Improvement Services/City of Durham.



Plus: a massive thank you to the 48 sponsors who contributed to the event, including the Golden Belt Campus who hosted us!

LEAD SPONSORS ($10,000+)

  • The Forest at Duke

  • Hendrick Subaru     

  • Mebane Charitable Foundation

  • Written Word Media

ASPIRE SPONSORS ($5,000+)

  • Boston Consulting Group

  • Comerica

  • Golden Belt Campus

  • Pinnacle Financial Partners

  • Triangle Media Partners

  • Wyrick Robbins

REACH SPONSORS ($2,500+)

  • City of Durham

  • Elms Lane Realty Group

  • Greystar

  • Kathryn Bell

  • Leininger-Hugh Crew

  • Mary Rae Hunter, Urban Durham Realty

  • Participate Learning

  • Scholastic

  • Two Men and a Truck

STRIVE SPONSORS ($1,000+)

  • A Better Image Printing

  • ABC 11

  • Carolina Friends School

  • Duke University Libraries

  • Durham Academy & Hill Learning Center

  • Family of Sinthal Ramaswami Ramiah

  • Gateway Building Company

  • The Insurance Center of Durham

  • Kiwanis Club of Durham

  • Mad Popper

  • Miller Property Management

  • Phoenix Wealth Advisors

  • Street Level Media

  • Tiny Earth Toys

  • Zarazua Painting Inc

HOPE SPONSORS ($500+)

  • Child’s Play

  • Duke Street Pediatric Dentistry

  • Franklin Street Pediatric Dentistry

  • Jewish for Good

  • Kennon Craver, PLLC

  • Millennium Sports Club

  • The Smile Shop

  • Triangle Park (NC) Chapter of The Links, Incorporated

  • The Whiskey Honeys

CHANGE SPONSORS ($250+)

  • Clifton and Mauney Orthodontics and Pediatric Dentistry

  • Drive80 Studios

  • Michele Lynn Communications

  • James Zewe, State Farm Insurance

  • Wendy Tanson, Nest Realty of the Triangle






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